'Twisters' movie review: A not-too-radical or twisted reboot

Still from Twisters

Film: Twisters
Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell, Anthony Ramos, Brandon Perea, Maura Tierney, Harry Hadden-Paton, Sasha Lane, Daryl McCormack
Director: Lee Isaac Chung
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 122 min.

Jan de Bont's 1996 ‘Twister' had effects that lent a realistic dread inducing experience. This Lee Isaac Chung ( famous for ‘Minari') remake-denoted-as-sequel, with no connecting threads to the original, has fairly impressive effects but the tornadoes at the center of it don't inspire fear or awe. The story here is a pointless regurgitation of what happened in the original film. The tornadoes feel tame even though they look visually impressive, and are just there to set up the challenge for a thrill seeking adventure. The CGI and sound effects are cutting edge no doubt but the overall experience feels lacking in depth.

Daisy Edgar-Jones' Kate Carter, an EF-5 survivor and Glenn Powell's Tyler Owens a tornado wrangler, headline this meteorological thriller, set during a once-in-a-generation tornado season in Oklahoma. And they are the main reason why this high-risk adventure thriller feels reasonably likeable. Between them, they generate a playful chemistry that keeps our interest in what transpires on screen, going.

This film opens with an extended prologue that features significant losses. Five years on we see former storm chaser Kate Carter and reckless social-media Influencer Tyler Owens on a collision course backed by their respective competitive teams, chasing storms during terrifying phenomena (multiple storm systems) over central Oklahoma. Their lives are at risk yet the adrenaline junkies & met scientists are daring enough to put themselves right in the eye of the steadily re-forming Twisters. ‘Twisters' basically sets-up a romantic triangle between a smart, attractive woman and two attractive men with different priorities. Anthony Ramos as Javi is the third wheel here.

The film doesn't have any of the markings of a sequel. None of the original characters appear nor are they referenced in any form or manner here. The film repeats the plot points of the original without acknowledging those origins. The narrative here doesn't have anything creative or new to add and merely pads up on much of the weaker portions of the original. ‘Twister' made us experience the awesome destructive power of tornadoes. ‘Twisters' makes do with sci-fi tropes to buy into some silliness of trying to dissipate them. There's no clear reference to climate change and its aftermath either. Mark L. Smith's screenplay from a story by Joseph Kosinski, sets up an uninteresting pattern of whirlwinds textured by predictable character dynamics and therefore feels limiting in essential aspects.

De Bont had used airplane turbines to shore up the practical effects in the original. Chung merely uses a CGI toolkit that is unable to replicate the original's ferocity or velocity. The original ‘Twister' had Bill Paxton, Helen Hunt, Cary Elwes and Philip Seymour Hoffman to lend it superiority. In this film, save for Maura Tierney, the secondary cast is imminently forgettable.

The fractured interpersonal relationships sidelining this adventure movie set-up don't increase the empathy or humanity. The subplot of a land shark using natural disasters to increase his wealth doesn't go anywhere either. Everything feels rather manufactured and fails to manifest as ‘real' here. The rural Oklahoma locations enhanced by Benjamin Wallfisch's score interspersed with country songs by contemporary artists (including Charley Crockett's "Ghost Riders in the Sky") adds a modicum of heft though.

‘Twisters' though not much of a sequel, is fairly okay as a disaster movie standalone. The opening sequence sets up the expectations nicely and the climactic showdown between man and nature's beast allows for some redemption. Eventually, a passable entertainer at best.